SAN RAFAEL -- With medical marijuana dispensaries popping up like dandelions throughout Marin County, two Marin supervisors sponsored a public forum this week to discuss whether the county should sanction dispensaries and if so how they should be regulated.

Nearly 100 people turned out for the Tuesday evening meeting at the Marin Civic Center.

"This is Dispensary 101," said Supervisor Steve Kinsey, who sponsored the forum along with Supervisor Susan Adams. "This is not about making decisions. This is about a conversation."

Kinsey and Adams made it clear they favor a change in the county's zoning law, which prohibits dispensaries in areas of the county outside municipalities. When contacted Wednesday, supervisors Judy Arnold and Charles McGlashan said they were willing to consider supporting such action provided it was handled right.

"I do think there is a role for local government, especially to be more proactive," Adams said. She noted that in Southern California, medical marijuana dispensaries proliferated despite local laws prohibiting them.

So far, two dispensaries have opened within the county's jurisdiction: Tree of Life dispensary in Santa Venetia and the Marin Wellness Center in Kentfield. Tree of Life ceased operations last month after the Solano County Sheriff's Office arrested its operator, Cindy Elizabeth Harris, and charged her with multiple marijuana felonies and conspiracy.

County officials are in the process of trying to enforce the zoning law that prohibits both dispensaries. Hearings before an administrative law judge have been set for Nov. 17 for Tree of Life and Dec. 1 for the Wellness Center.

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Kinsey said it is important the county comply with state laws requiring safe access to medical marijuana for qualified patients. He said he favors adopting county regulations that would limit the number of such dispensaries and require them to comply with certain standards.

"There should be a role for local government helping to define where and how these dispensaries go," Kinsey said.

Tuesday's forum included comments from District Attorney Ed Berberian; several county department heads; Lynnette Shaw, head of the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Fairfax; and Craig Litwin, a former mayor of Sebastopol who helped write that town's ordinance governing medical marijuana dispensaries in 2007.

Larry Meredith, director of the county's Department of Health and Human Services, provided some data gleaned from the medical marijuana identification cards his department issues in cooperation with the state. The cards, which under state law are optional, certify that the holder has obtained a marijuana recommendation from his doctor.

Meredith said the county issued cards to 976 Marin residents in 2009. He said a sample of cards issued over one six-week period showed that one doctor accounted for 46 percent of the recommendations and another doctor issued 11 percent. The remainder of the recommendations were written by 35 other doctors, he said. Meredith said physician consultations for medical marijuana range in price from $99 to $250. Recommendations must be updated yearly.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, Tim Cermak, a Mill Valley psychiatrist and president of the California Society of Addiction Medicine, said that when Proposition 215 allowing medicinal use of marijuana passed in 1996, the California Medical Board issued a set of criteria for doctors who would be issuing recommendations for marijuana use. In addition to a diagnosis, doctors were supposed to conduct a physical exam, design a treatment plan and do follow-up.

"Unfortunately, the medical board has never enforced these standards," Cermak said. "If a doctor opened up a practice and whoever came in was given unlimited amounts of Prozac for an entire year for whatever they wanted it for, they would be considered a shill for the pharmaceutical community. We need to police the medical community."

Laurie Dubin of Larkspur said she was concerned about the message that the proliferation of medical marijuana dispensaries is sending to her three children.

"The message that is being conveyed to kids these days is that marijuana is not a drug. It's medicinal. It's herbal. It's natural," Dubin said. "They're not getting that they're at real risk for adolescent use."

An overwhelming majority of those who attended Tuesday's meeting spoke in favor of permitting medical marijuana dispensaries in the county.

Larry Bedard, of Sausalito, a retired emergency room physician and head of the Health Professionals Coalition in support of Proposition 19, said that instead of revamping county laws to accommodate Proposition 215, supervisors should begin preparing for the broader legalization of marijuana that will result if voters approve Proposition 19 on the Nov. 2 ballot. Bedard said recent polls show growing support for Proposition 19.

"It's said generals fight the last war. When you're talking about medicinal marijuana, I think you're talking about the last war," Bedard said. "I think on Nov. 2, you're going to see the first wave of a tsunami hit California, which like many other ideas will sweep across the country."